Clumsy Bob Review

Spotting a ridiculously cutesy looking platformer about an elephant called Bob, I couldn't resist loading up Clumsy Bob. Then I spotted that word 'accelerometer'. I'm rather wary of any game relying solely on the accelerometer. While some games succeed wonderfully, its implementation can make or break a title. Sometimes the accelerometer controls are just too darn sensitive and the experience becomes infuriating beyond words.

In the case of Clumsy Bob though, the controls are perfect, just perfect. Any subsequent failings are purely down to your inability to time the jump, not because of any finnicky control system. It makes for a great experience. The idea is simple. You bounce across the screen, carefully leaping from tiny cloud to tiny cloud, all with an aim to gain the highest score. As you bound along, you can collect various items to aid you. Golden coins give you extra points, umbrellas enable you to hover for a brief time and rockets send you flying across the screen. It's not all plain sailing for Bob though, there are rats, snakes and even falling anvils out to get you which you have to carefully dodge.

The experience feels quite calming though. Knowing that the worst that happens is you start again doesn't feel so bad, after all it's a fun experience throughout. Plus you can go at your own pace, flying through the platforms or carefully bouncing between them. There's no way of completing the game, just accruing higher and higher scores. The Twitter and Facebook support means that you can compete with your friends easily. There's crystal support too but perhaps OpenFeint or GameCenter support would have been better, purely for the sake of not forcing people to sign up to more services. It's not compulsory at least.

Clumsy Bob is a really enjoyable little game. It's also the kind of game that you'll find yourself playing for what feels like 5 minutes when it's actually an hour or more. Praise indeed. Do try to not feel so bad when poor clumsy Bob falls down once again though, he's so cute you can't help but feel sorry for him.